Individuals with gastric hyperacidity are restricted in choice of diet. For those who are obese or who need to control their weight for other reasons, such a restriction in food options makes desirable weight loss yet more difficult. Further, gastric hyperacidity and gastroesophageal reflux are thought to be associated with obesity, as the sensation of hyperacidity is often confused with that of hunger. Since eating relieves the discomfort, even if the person is not hungry, eating often occurs. Thus “false hunger” produced by the hyperacidity may cause many obese individuals to discontinue adherence to a calorie restricted diet. S“Patients with esophageal pH<4 for more than 5% of observed time weighed more than those with normal acid exposure.” Fisher et al. Dig Dis Sci 1999; 44:2290, abstract only. Moreover, obese patients produce more gastric acid in response to pentagastrin than do normal-weight control individuals. Wisen et al. Dig Dis Sci 1987; 32: 968, abstract only.
Obesity remains a serious health concern in modern society and is highly correlated with medical problems including diabetes. Moreover medical science has linked obesity with cardiac problems, high blood pressure, and kidney ailments. Sixty-one percent of adult Americans are overweight and more than a quarter are obese according to the 1999 National Health and Nutrition Examination survey of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Obese individuals may also suffer psychologically under constant commercial media bombardment of “beautiful” people being skinny and svelte. Indeed, obese people often suffer a social stigma simply from their appearance.
Improvement in a sense of well-being and health is often associated with loss of excess weight. The anecdotal results are supported by studies of metabolic functions in individuals on weight loss protocols. Flechtner-Mors et al. Obesity Res 2000; 8:399. For example, both men and women have decreases in elevated insulin and glucose levels at three months after initiating a weight loss regimen and coincident with weight losses of about 8% and 7%, respectively. Ditschuneit et al. Am J Clin Nutr 1999; 69:198. Moreover, long term decreases in elevated insulin and glucose levels have been observed. Flechtner-Mores, supra. Both of these studies replaced one or two meals with a meal replacement and provided nutrition snack bars for snacks.
For both the medical and social disadvantages, overweight and obese individuals have long sought effective methods to lose their excess weight. While a combination of a reasonable diet and exercise may be best, it is not uncommon for individuals to subscribe to one diet plan after the next in a vain effort to lose weight. And, as anyone who has tried any of the numerous diet plans available has experienced, the craving for food while on a diet can be quite acute and the urge to stray from the dietary regimen constant. Hence, any one individual on a diet may not necessarily lose weight over the course of a diet and a population of individuals on a given diet may experience a very large range of weight change. Individuals suffering from gastric hyperacidity are particularly restricted in the varieties of food that they can consume.
For some individuals on a diet plan, a substitute for the commonly available “snack” food is an aid in weight loss.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,595,772 to J. Wurtman and R. J. Wurtman titled “Composition and Methods for Losing Weight,” discloses a snack composition “which may include maltodextrin (35 grams), dextrose (14.5 grams), Penplus UM Starch (3.0 grams), malic acid, fine granular (1.4 grams), H&R Orange (90 milligrams), WJ Yellow No. 6 (30 milligrams), Niacinamide (5.0 milligrams), pantothenate (2.5 milligrams), calcium (500 milligrams), and magnesium (200 milligrams). The snack composition may also contain added fiber (e.g. circa 10 grams of methylcellulose or the like).”
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,760,014 and 5,612,320, both to J. Wurtman, J. L. Shear, and A. Kershman and both titled “Therapeutic carbohydrate blends useful for aiding premenstrual syndrome,” a composition of 44.5 g dextrose, 3 g starch, 1.4 g malic acid, pH 2, 270 mL water, and orange flavoring.
However, for obese patients, a majority of which have signs and symptoms of gastric hyperacidity, too much exogenous acid is contraindicated.